ii.
Katniss Mellark née Everdeen sat on the porch of her home with her father's old bow resting against her legs. For the first time since Mari was born, seven years ago, she had been active in a field that didn't involve her children.
Sighing with content the woman leaned against one of the columns holding up the overhanging roof. She loved her children of course, but it had always been a relief to have a day where she wouldn't have to deal with the two of them attempting to bite the other's head off, and now she would have about nine months with both of them at school, which would leave her time to practice. Her skill with the bow and arrow had gotten rusty over the years.
Was that selfish? Her mother had never complained about her and Prim. Then again, her mother didn't have a little boy and a little girl whose moods towards the other could swing from affection to hostility in a matter of minutes.
"Mom!" the call shot Katniss out of her contemplation. She looked up and saw her daughter running towards the house with Dill in tow.
"How was your first day of school?" she asked, as her son snuggled into her lap and Mari settled herself on the step above theirs.
"S'all right, I guess," Dill shrugged, "Ms. Cartwright let us play games and we drew on somethin' called 'tablets' with chalk. I drew Mr. Haymitch and his gooses–"
"Geese," Mari corrected.
" –Geese, whatever," Dill stuck out his tongue, "Anyways, I wanted to show you and Daddy and Mr. Haymitch, but we could bring 'em home,"
"Tell her about the girl," his dark haired sister prompted, giggling maniacally.
"A girl?" Katniss smiled, running her fingers through her sons' light hair.
Dill's face contorted into something comically sour, "There's this girl in my class and we was partners for one of the games and she asked me my name and I said, 'Dill' and then she said, 'Pill? Like a pill bug?' and now all the other kids call me 'pill bug', even after I corrected them! I don't like that girl very much, she was mean to me."
"Well that's too bad," she grimaced, making a mental note to talk to Delly about Dill's new nickname tomorrow before school, "What's this girls name?"
"Beryl," he replied absently, in between begging to go to Peeta's bakery, "Beryl Hawthorne."
author's note: Originally this story was going to be two parts, this and the first chapter, but now I'm thinking about making it longer by probably four chapters from Beryl and Dill's points of view. What do you guys think?
Also, it is super hard to write Katniss and still make it seem like Katniss! I didn't really succeed so, my immediate respect for anyone who can.